This invention relates in general to the operation of coking ovens and, in particular, to a new and useful method of operating a coal predrying and heating plant or for preparing and delivering coal to a coking plant in which the coal to be carbonized is passed through driers where it is brought into direct contact with an inert drying gas which is produced by the combustion of a fuel with air and, wherein, the preheated coal is separated from the drying and heating gas and transported under the protective cover of an inert gas to the oven chambers of a coke oven battery or to the bunkers serving the battery.